David Blatt is the new coach of Maccabi Tel-Aviv

David Blatt will be re-joining Maccabi Tel-Aviv (Israel-Winner League). Blatt was the head coach for the Israeli squad from 2010-2014. Tel-Aviv was very successful in the time Blatt was there. They went to the Israeli Premier League Championship in every season, winning in 2011, 2012 and 2014. Blatt also led the team to an Israeli Cup championship in 2011, Adriatic League championship in 2012, and was named the All-Euroleague Coach of the year in 2014. Not many coaches have the pedigree that Blatt brings to the table.

Blatt left Europe in the summer of 2014 to join the Cleveland Cavaliers. At the time, he joined Cleveland when they were thought of as a struggling organization with promising young players such as Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson. Blatt was thought of as a developmental coach who could grow with the young stars. Everything changed drastically in a short time. Lebron James was a free agent that summer and decided to come home to rejoin the team that drafted him. Cleveland welcomed James back with open arms which meant he was in full control of the team. Blatt knew it would be a challenge to mesh, and actually instruct, with James. The experiment went well during the first season, and Cleveland actually made the NBA Finals. The team ultimately lost to the Golden State Warriors but no fault fell on Blatt’s shoulders.

The next season was the real challenge for Blatt. Players started not responding to him well and the team eventually alienated him as their coach. Halfway through the year, the Cavaliers decided to part ways with Blatt and promote Tyron Lue as the head coach. Cleveland went on to win the championship that year and has not looked back since.

Blatt then made a resurgence back in Europe with Darussafaka Dogus Istanbul (Turkey-BSL) shortly after being fired. The team played well and made it to a Euroleague quarterfinal. However, Blatt could not turn down his former team that took him to the top in 2014.